ODOT crews cleanup litter along Stark County highways

Tuesday

Mar 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 31, 2009 at 10:34 AM

ODOT crews were picking up litter along highways in Stark County Tuesday. The annual cleanup each spring is part of the department’s combined effort with “Keep Ohio Beautiful” and the Adopt a Highway program to clear trash from along Ohio highways.

A record number of volunteers took to the highways last week to kick off the Ohio Department of Transportation’s annual spring litter cleanup, “Clear Across Ohio.”

ODOT wants to prevent litter around the state and has partnered with Keep Ohio Beautiful on the Great American Cleanup. April is “Keep Ohio Beautiful Month” as proclaimed by Gov. Ted Strickland

“ODOT crews work very hard maintaining our highways for all motorists,” said ODOT Director Jolene M. Molitoris in a press release. “But litter isn’t normal road repair. It’s a problem that keeps coming back, and something has to be done to stop it.”

In Stark County, ODOT crews were out Tuesday morning picking up trash along the south bound side of Interstate 77 just south of the Portage Street NW exit.

Statewide, ODOT crews collected nearly seven million pounds of trash in 2008 at a cost of $3.6 million in labor and equipment expenses. That’s more than 350,000 bags of litter and debris taken off roads and grassy medians on the state highway system.

In northeastern Ohio, ODOT/District 4, which serves Ashtabula, Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Summit and Trumbull counties, collected more than 40,800 bags of litter at a cost of $378,000 in its six-county region in 2008.

The Adopt-a-Highway program began in 1989. Ohio has more than 1,400 groups who have joined ODOT’s Adopt-A-Highway program. Each group volunteers to clean up a two-mile section or interchange along the state highway system, picking up litter and debris a minimum of four times a year for two years.

The Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest annual community improvement program.

To find out how to participate, visit www.dot.state.oh.us and look for the Adopt-A-Highway icon.